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Royal welcome for swans at ceremony

Updated on 20 July 2009

Source PA News

A brood of cygnets was given a royal welcome at the first Swan Upping ceremony witnessed by a monarch in centuries.

The Queen travelled up the River Thames to see the ancient ritual of counting the birds along Britain's most famous waterway.

The ceremony used to be a means to provide food for the royal dinner table with some cygnets taken away to be fattened, but today the event is about conservation rather than consumption.

These news feeds are provided by an independent third party and Channel 4 is not responsible or liable to you for the same.

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